Chapter 591

Chapter 591: Toward the deep layers

“Did you hear something?”

On a natural path deep in the forest, Shirley suddenly stopped walking and muttered, a little suspicious.

“I did not hear anything, but I smelled… that clear ‘stench’,” Dog stopped beside Shirley, a low, disgusted sound rumbling in his throat. “More than one. It is mixed with the foul sense of chaotic, dull minds, and a pure, blind urge to destroy…”

“Looks like those ‘old acquaintances’ really came back,” Shirley grumbled. “They never get tired, do they? What does this ‘Nameless One’s dream’ have that makes them care so much? Is that so-called ‘original Blueprint’ really that attractive?”

Dog did not answer. He only crouched low and carefully felt out the lingering traces in the air—the scent left by Annihilators and Abyssal demons.

In those traces, he found something familiar.

“The Annihilator named ‘Richard’ is among them,” he said suddenly, lifting his head.

“That guy dared to come back?” Shirley stared in surprise. “After I smashed him like that last time, I thought he would have to lie in bed in the Mortal Realm for a while…”

Dog shook his head. “It seems they all made full preparations before dreamwalking. They have strong enough protection on the mental level. The damage they take in the dream will not affect the Mortal Realm too much. That makes sense. After all, if they gathered so many people to enter the Nameless One’s dream, they must already understand how this place works very well.”

Shirley frowned. “Are they still nearby?”

“They left a while ago,” Dog judged carefully. “The scent of the Abyssal demons is fading fast, but it is hard to say how far they are now. Shirley, we have to be careful. That ‘Richard’ is here too. He knows you. Last time’s trick will not work a second time.”

The look on Shirley’s face grew tense at once. She quickly checked the surroundings, then turned and said seriously to Dog: “Then how about we just find a place to hide here? We wait until it is dawn in the Mortal Realm. This forest is huge. Those cultists probably will not double back.”

“I do not suggest that. Do not forget that strange and dangerous ‘corruption’ phenomenon. It happens suddenly and spreads fast,” Dog said, shaking his head. “There is no corner here that is truly safe. The only place that might be safe is inside that so-called Wall of Silence. We need to find that ‘wall’.”

As he spoke, he lifted his head and looked toward a certain direction deeper in the forest. “Those Annihilators are also searching for the Wall of Silence. We can follow behind them from far away. As long as we stay hidden, the initiative will be in our hands.”

“Tch, fine, I was just talking,” Shirley clicked her tongue and said helplessly. “Let’s go then. Just make sure we don’t get too close to those cultists.”

Dog nodded. He checked the lingering scent in the air again and the direction it pointed to, then stepped forward—but he had only taken one step when he suddenly stopped and spoke quickly in a low voice: “Careful, someone is coming!”

Almost as soon as Dog finished speaking, Shirley heard sudden footsteps nearby. There had been no warning at all, as if a person had appeared out of thin air. Shirley’s whole body went rigid. She gripped her chain hard and snapped her head toward the source of the sound.

A tall elf maiden appeared in Shirley’s sight.

She wore a strange style of light armor that looked like hunter’s gear suited for moving through a forest, with extra reinforcement at key points. She had long, pale-gold hair like sunlight, with faintly glowing blue threads woven through it. In her hand was a weapon of odd design, like a mix of a long spear and a long-handled battle-axe.

Seeing this elf maiden who seemed to appear from nowhere, Shirley froze for a second. In that brief moment, the elf maiden had already taken a step toward her.

“You did not receive the evacuation order? Why are you still moving around outside the wall?”

Hearing the woman’s voice, Shirley opened her mouth. The sudden change left her a little lost. But she reacted quickly. All the acting and ability to read people that she had practiced since childhood came to life. “Ah, I… got lost. I was just about to head toward the Wall of Silence.”

The unfamiliar elf maiden did not seem to notice Shirley’s brief panic. She did not show any odd reaction to Dog either, even though Dog, with his fierce and twisted appearance, had not had time to hide. She simply nodded to Shirley and Dog and said: “You and your partner are in an area where corruption events are active. This place is not safe. Luckily for you, you met me, the ranger.”

As she spoke, she pointed with her long-handled axe toward a direction in the forest. “Come with me. I will take you to the Wall of Silence.”

“Ah… okay.” Shirley froze for a moment, then quickly reacted. At the same time, she called for the captain in the depths of her mind and tugged Dog along to follow.

They set off toward the direction of the Wall of Silence, walking along a natural path covered in fallen branches and leaves, crossing uneven clearings between the trees as they went deeper and deeper into the forest.

The elf maiden with the strange weapon walked in front. She spoke very little along the way.

That was not good for gathering information, so Shirley had to break the silence herself. After thinking for a moment, she asked: “By the way, what is your name?”

The elf maiden suddenly stopped and turned. She looked straight into Shirley’s eyes with a very serious expression. Only after two or three seconds did she answer softly: “My name is Celine—I hope you can remember my name.”

Shirley’s eyes widened.

…

In the vast darkness and fog, on the eerie, silent Vanished, Duncan, who was sitting beside the chart table talking with Goathead, suddenly froze and stopped his conversation with it.

He frowned slightly, as if he was using some kind of Listening rite to catch a sound from far away. His expression shifted quickly, from confusion to thoughtful focus.

Goathead on the table showed no reaction to Duncan’s sudden silence. Once Duncan stopped talking, it simply grew quiet with him. It asked no questions and showed no wish to speak on its own.

The Goathead that appeared on this eerie Vanished was like an “answering machine” stuck in a half-asleep state. Aside from speaking first to greet him, it rarely reacted to anything if Duncan did not speak to it.

Duncan glanced at Goathead.

In the end, this Goathead still had not explained what it meant by “Saslokar died long ago”. It only repeated that sentence over and over, as if its thoughts had jammed on that one piece of information.

After a short hesitation, Duncan rose from his chair and walked toward the old oval mirror not far away.

On the chart table, the black Goathead carving creaked as it moved again. Its dark, deep, cloudy eyes followed Duncan’s movements without a sound. The silent gaze only made it seem more unnerving.

But Duncan had, more or less, learned to ignore the eerie side of this suspicious Goathead. He walked straight up to the mirror and knocked on the glass.

Agatha’s figure appeared on the mirror’s surface almost at once.

Duncan paid close attention to the gaze on his back and the changes in the cabin’s atmosphere. But the strange Goathead showed no reaction at all to Agatha’s appearance, as if it could not see her.

“Captain.” In the mirror, Agatha also gave a cautious glance toward Goathead. Only after she was sure it truly did not react did she let out a quiet breath and nod to Duncan.

“Shirley and Dog met another ‘Celine’ in the forest,” Duncan answered Agatha’s greeting, then spoke directly.

Agatha’s lips parted. Her expression looked stunned for a moment, then she reacted at once: “Then Miss Lucretia…”

Duncan nodded. “She is still with ‘Celine’.”

The two of them fell silent on either side of the mirror. It was clear that neither of them had any good ideas.

After a while, Agatha drew a slow breath and broke the silence: “Captain, I have made some discoveries here too.”

Duncan lowered his voice without thinking: “What did you find?”

In the mirror, Agatha lifted her hand and silently pointed at the door at the very back of the captain’s cabin—the wooden door that led to the captain’s bedroom.

“While you were talking with Goathead just now, I passed through all the mirrors on this Vanished,” she said. “Every mirror’s position and the scenes they showed were almost no different from those on the Vanished in the Mortal Realm. Only inside there… I was blocked by a strange ‘barrier’.”

Duncan looked toward the captain’s bedroom at once. As he listened to Agatha’s account, his eyes grew more and more serious.

After thinking for a moment, he walked toward the door.

On the chart table, the black Goathead carving creaked and shifted again. Its dark eyes tracked Duncan’s movements.

Duncan wrapped his hand around the doorknob, but he did not push it open right away. Instead, he turned and stared at Goathead on the table. After a short stare-down, he spoke in a low voice: “What is in there?”

“I do not know,” Goathead said slowly.

“Can I go in?”

“I do not know,” Goathead repeated, as if it were echoing itself.

“…If I go in, what will happen?”

“I do not know.” The suspicious Goathead seemed as if it would only ever repeat that one line.

But at least, it did not seem like it meant to stop him.

Duncan gave Goathead one last, long look. Then he turned back to the familiar cabin door in front of him, took a deep breath, and twisted the handle.

An empty space of tangled, overlapping chaos appeared beyond the door, as if countless abstract lines had been drawn and layered there again and again.

Duncan stood in the doorway and stared at the “room” inside. Among those chaotic, overlapping lines, he could still just make out a few things: a bed, a table, a window, a wall.

But all of them had lost their true form. It was as if they had been torn apart and crudely reassembled inside the mind of someone whose thoughts were broken, then replayed in a twisted dream. There was no way to see what they had originally looked like.